The Chateau-Style Mansion of the 'Die Rich' Insurance Magnate

By Curbed

Life-insurance mogul Barry Kaye (who wrote such books as Die Rich and Tax Free, famously defraudeda bunch of elderly people in South Florida in the late aughts, and founded a miniature museum in Los Angeles with his wife, Carol) originally listed this French Regency-style estate, located in the estates section of the ultra-exclusive St. Andrew's Country Club in Boca Raton, Florida, for $14,975,000 in 2007. Kaye bought the plot's original home for $800,000 in 2002, paid his next-door neighbor $1,000,000 for the rights to knock down his house, and, well, the rest is history. The 15,800-square-foot mansion, with seven bedrooms and nine bathrooms, has bounced on and off the market for the last few years (and was, at one point, renting for $500,000 a month), finally landing at its current $11,500,000 ask. Inside are things made of marble and Macassar ebony, a large kitchen with adjoining "morning room," a "gentlemen's study," a "ladies' study," a "retreat room," a home theater, and bathrooms so over-the-top lavish it's hard to imagine actually washing up in them. Outside: a loggia, pool, a sculpture garden, and reflecting pool. Here's something else: the house sits on a mere 1.2 acres of land.